Ups and Downs
by blahblahblahx3
Summary: Sakura almost died from depression but with the help of her friends, including a certain Uchiha and Hyuuga, she is able to recover. However, when her past comes back to haunt her, will she be able to pull through this time? Read to find out! NejiSakuSasu
1. Prologue

**Ups and Downs  
**

The first chapter is finally out! Thank you to everyone who has supported me when I wrote the first version of this story, Love and Regret/ Replaced Memories. Yes, I have decided once again to change the title Sorry for any inconviences.

I hope you will enjoy this fic more than you did before I edited it! Thank you again!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

Blah- narrating thingy

"Blah"-talking

"BLAH" –yelling

'blah_' – thinking_

_blah – flashback/recap or song…_

'**blah'- inner person speaking**

Prologue

A young kunoichi in Konoha smiled gently. She had found a sheet in a corner in her room that was crumbled up into a tight ball. Inside was a song that she had taken an immediately liking to. She didn't know why but this song just appealed so strongly to her. She sang her favorite verse from the song softly to herself.

_If someone said three years from now  
You'd be long gone  
I'd stand up and punch them out  
Cause they're all wrong  
I know better  
'Cause you said forever  
And ever  
Who knew_

Knock Knock.

"Sakura-chan? Are you in there?"

Haruno Sakura smiled again. Outside was her best friend Hyuuga Hinata. They were going to the market together today.

"Yes! Wait a second 'kay?!" Sakura quickly used the window's reflection of her to smoothen out her unique pink colored locks. She then grabbed her bag and went outside.

"Sorry to make you wait, Hina-chan! I sorta slept in!" Sakura admitted sheepishly.

Hinata just laughed, her colorless eyes lit up in mirth. "It's okay, Sakura-chan! C'mon! Let's go!"

"M'kay!"

"Hinata-chan! We can't go that way! People will see us!" Sakura whispered.

Hinata laughed again. "Sorry, forgot about your fanboys. They'll try to suck up to you even more since Neji-san's away on a mission."

Sakura turned away to hide a blush from her friend, making the other laugh even more.

"Shut up! Your precious ramen king isn't here either." Sakura teased, making the other girl blush too. She watched in amusement as the Hyuuga tucked a strand of her long blue hair behind her ear, something she did whenever she was nervous.

Sakura couldn't help but grin, showing her happiness. Haruno Sakura was a very happy person. Every time you saw her, there would be either a grin or a smile on her face. But then again, how could she not be happy. She had the body that females would kill for, hair that was always perfect (Sakura and bad hair days were like antonyms), everyone in Konoha loved her, and she was currently dating the Hyuuga prodigy. Hyuuga Neji.

When it came to relations, Sakura would be number one, not only by romance.

She was the best friend of the future hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, Hinata's boyfriend. She was the beloved apprentice of the current hokage too, Tsunade. She was loved by basically everyone in Konoha. In the terrifying Elders would soften by a smile from this sweetheart.

Let's just face the facts! Haruno Sakura's life is perfect!

'For now…' an unknown person thought evilly.

To Be Continued?

That's it for now everyone! Future Chapters WILL be longer! Promise!!

Before I forget, the song used was 'Who Knew' by Pink. It was only a little part of the song but you will be hearing more from it… dundundundun!! XD

Please review and tell me what you think so far! Hoped you enjoyed this lil intro:)


	2. Chapter 1

Ups and Downs

Hi everyone!! I'm really sorry for the delay for this chapter. I've been busy lately and I finally finished everything so I kinda forgot this story for a while… hehe… oops.

Anyways, thank you to the following people for reviewing, it meant a lot to me:

Sonata-Time Master-Koaishine

Jashin-scythe-blossom

al2010

Okay then, that's it for now…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

Blah- narrating thingy

"Blah"-talking

"BLAH" –yelling

'blah'thinking

_blah – flashback/recap or song…_

'**blah'- inner person speaking**

Chapter 1

Recap

_She was the best friend of the future hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, Hinata's boyfriend. She was the beloved apprentice of the current hokage too, Tsunade. She was loved by basically everyone in Konoha. In the terrifying Elders would soften by a smile from this sweetheart._

_Let's just face the facts! Haruno Sakura's life is perfect!_

'_For now…' an unknown person thought evilly._

End of Recap

Konoha's beloved kunoichi was now in her room again, holding a picture with her left hand while her index finger from her other hand was lightly tracing two faces, a blonde and a brunette, in the picture.

"Neji-kun, Naruto… come back already. Why aren't you back home yet?" She whispered to the two figures in the picture.

Somewhere out of the village:

"YATTA!! WE'RE GONNA REACH KONOHA SOON!! THEN WE CAN SEE SAKURA-CHAN, HINATA-CHAN, OBAA-CHAN, AND THEN… ICHIRAKU!! MORE RAM-itai…"

This was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, a young teenaged hyper-active blonde whose body contained the infamous Kyuubi, the nine-tailed beast.

Naruto was rubbing his head, which now contained two huge bumps thanks to his captain for the current mission.

"Hey Neji!! What was that for?" the blonde whined.

"Hn."

Hyuuga Neji was Konoha's famous prodigy from the Hyuuga Clan, which explained why he had the traditional pupil-less eyes that every Hyuuga that had the Byakugan would have.

"Sigh… so troublesome."

"Sniff… Shut it, Shikamaru!!" Naruto yelled at the shinobi who had just spoke.

Nara Shikamaru, the laziest shinobi in Konoha. However, even though he was super lazy, his intelligence seemed to make up for it, making him the strategist for the team as well as co-captain.

These ninjas, as well as the others who were following behind them, were on their way back home in Konoha from a mission. This mission was to retrieve a certain Uchiha who had betrayed and abandoned Kohona about 3 and half years ago. They had successfully captured him and Neji was dragging the unconscious teen with him while making sure the chakra ropes binding his arms and legs had not come loose.

After a few hours of traveling, the ANBU team finally reached the gates of Konoha.

"YAY!! WE'RE HERE!! FINALL-huh?" Naruto was once again interrupted but this time by two hands covering his eyes.

He heard a familiar laughter followed by a soft voice. "Guess who it is Naruto-kun!"

Naruto grinned before turning around to pick up the girl and spin her around while yelling, "HINATA-CHAN!!"

Hinata giggled again.

When she was placed back onto the ground, she faced her cousin, Neji, and said, "What took you guys so long, Neji-san? Everyone was becoming worried, including Sakura-chan!!"

Unknown to everyone there, by that time, Sasuke had already woken up and he noticed that after the Hyuuga prodigy had heard what his cousin said, a different expression had graced his countenance before his usual stoic expression came back.

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes.

'Sakura?' he thought. Then he heard Neji reply to his cousin, "Aah, I see. I'll go visit her later on."

Naruto grinned his fox-like grin. "Nevermind Neji!! I wanna report to Obaa-chan this time!! You can go see Sakura-chan!!"

Before Neji could reply, he sensed a familiar spark of chakra coming to the group. He smirked. "There's no need for that."

Naruto was about to say something back until once again, he was being hugged by someone.

He looked down at the person embracing him and when he saw pink, he immediately returned the embrace.

"Sakura!!"

Sakura pulled back and then started to give the other boys a hug as well but purposely skipped her boyfriend just to tick him off.

First Shika-kun (Shikamaru), then Sai, the next three boys she hugged she didn't know but since they were blushing ever since they first saw her, she figured they were part of her huge fanclub. Suddenly emerald eyes met onyx ones.

Sakura took a quick intake of air, her eyes widening in surprise. Her body felt weird, like there were sparks of something going down her spine.

Hyuuga Neji's blood was beginning to boil. 'Don't tell me she remembers him again… she's not supposed to…' he thought while narrowing his eyes… 'Why are they staring at each other?!'

'What's going on? Why am I feeling this way? Who is he? I've never seen him before.' Thoughts were rushing through Sakura's and she didn't realize that she was still staring at Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke smirked. 'Great,' he thought, 'now she's going to go all 'Sasuke-kun!! Your back!! I missed you so much and I love you for ever!!'

If Sasuke wasn't an Uchiha, he would have rolled his eyes.

However to his surprise, the now blushing girl glanced at Neji who gave her a look that he wasn't able to comprehend. Then she turned back to the Uchiha and smiled at him while saying, "Sorry for being rude just now. I'm Haruno Sakura. Welcome to Konoha."

Sakura stuck out her hand for him to shake it but instead he totally ignored it. He just kept on staring at her… in surprise?

Sakura decided to ignore it and finally decided to give her boyfriend his long awaited hug.

'What's going on?! I know she's Sakura. She was on my team for God's sake… Why doesn't she recognize me?! Why isn't she going all fangirl mode on me?! Why am I not being called Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke was barely able to keep his face blank anymore… today just wasn't his day.

'First Suigetsu and Karin bug the hell out of me... then I get beaten by the dobe and the Hyuuga, then the fucking chakra ropes, then the dobe yelling, annoying, then the stupid ANBU team… argh!! Now Sakura… annoying… annoying… ANNOYING!!' he thought furiously.

Sasuke lost it.

He marched right up to the hugging couple and pried Sakura off Neji. He started shaking the girl furiously while yelling incoherently, his eyes unconsciously going crimson red, showing signs of his Sharingan.

Sakura's head was starting to hurt… 'That voice… those eyes… Where…?'

Sakura's form went limp in the Uchiha's arms as her mind went blank and her eyes saw darkness.

"Sasuke-kun?" she whispered so softly that only two were barely able to hear it…

Crimson eyes calmed down back to onyx. 'She remembers.' Sasuke thought while cradling the unconscious girl.

Hyuuga Neji's sharp hearing had picked up the name his girlfriend had just mentioned. 'Shit… she remembers…'

He tapped the blonde next to him, who was now worriedly staring at the pink-haired girl while comforting his anxious girl friend.

Naruto turned around to the Hyuuga giving him a 'what now' look.

"Code Blue…" Neji whispered so low that Naruto barely heard it. Naruto's eyes widened in recognition of the code.

"Get Sai to bring the Uchiha to Tsunade-sama and tell him to give her the report. You bring Sakura over to the Hyuuga Household and Hinata while go with you. I need to go get Itachi." Neji instructed.

'Fast!!' he added to himself as an afterthought.

To be Continued?

That's it for now… it didn't go as long as I wanted it to but I don't think it was THAT bad… once again… sorry for the late update!! :(

I will try to update sooner… but I make no promises…

Thanks for reading and please please PLEASE review and tell me what you think!!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!! and thanks again for reading!!


	3. Chapter 2

Ups and Downs

**Ups and Downs**

Okay… I swear that I was gonna update WAY sooner this week!! You know… 'cos of spring break and stuff… but then I kinda fought with my mom… not so smart… and got my poor laptop taken away!! So now I'm stuck with the ugly slow computer!!

:(

Anyways… Thank you to the following for reviewing the previous chapter:

sakuralovewinsalways

al2010

Okay then… better start the chapter then!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

Blah – narrating thingy

"Blah" – talking

"BLAH" – yelling

'Blah' – thinking

_blah_ – flashback/recap or song…

'**blah' **– inner person speaking

Chapter 2

Recap

"_Code Blue…" Neji whispered so low that Naruto barely heard it. Naruto's eyes widened in recognition of the code._

"_Get Sai to bring the Uchiha to Tsunade-sama and tell him to give her the report. You bring Sakura over to the Hyuuga Household and Hinata while go with you. I need to go get Itachi." Neji instructed._

'_Fast!!' he added to himself as an afterthought._

End of Recap

All the villagers were confused.

They had stopped to watch the cute scene between Sakura and Neji as well as Hinata and Naruto.

'Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…' they thought, before turning back to do whatever they were doing before.

Suddenly, a voice boomed out, "MAKE WAY!! MOVE IT GRANDMA!! I'M IN A HURRY!! MOVE IT!!"

This was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, who was sprinting across the village while the Hyuuga heiress was right behind his heels.

At first the villagers were like, 'That boy missed the ramen here that bad??' until they realized that the ramen restaurant that the blonde loved so much, was the other way.

"Huh?" they all said, confused until another shout was heard.

"OMG!! SAKURA-CHAN'S HURT!! MAKE WAY!! MAKE WAY!!"

Suddenly, almost all the males in the village were chasing after the blond.

"SAKURA-CHAN!! ARE YOU OKAY!!"

"SAKURA-CHYAN!!"

"WAIT FOR ME!! SAKURA!!"

Naruto groaned in annoyance.

'Damn fanboys.' He thought.

Hinata tapped his shoulder and when he turned around and was surprised to see another Naruto.

Hinata giggled, then whispered, "Ne-Naruto-kun. U-use your charka to change your hair color and eyes!! G-give me your jacket!! I'll lead them the other way!!"

"Hai!! Arigatou Hinata-chan!!"

The blonde quickly turned into a redhead, while 'Naruto' turned right, towards an alleyway, bringing the fanboys with 'him.'

When the fanboys reached the alleyway, they were shocked to see no-one there.

Hinata released the jutsu and turned around to follow Naruto.

Back near borders of Konoha:

Uchiha Sasuke was not pleased. At all…

Why was it the look-alike of him dragging him over to the Hokage-tower?? Why not the dobe? Why not Sakura? Why not even one of the Hyuugas? Why the replacement of him??

To make it even worse squealing injured his poor ears. Yes! Squealing!!

"Sasu-kuns back!! I missed you!!"

"Sasuke-kun?! Is that you!! I LOVE YOU!!"

"Sasuke-kun!! Let's start restoring the Uchiha Clan now!!"

Sasuke's left eye twitched in annoyance. Did they all forget he was a missing-nin?? If he were to attack Konoha, would they just start squealing about him, instead of running for their lives??

'Annoying…' He thought, before glancing at Sai.

The ANBU was still dragging him until suddenly, a black tiger came out from his scroll.

"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" the fangirls shrieked, before running away.

Sasuke smirked. He couldn't help it.

The tiger was now carrying Sasuke while Sai was writing furiously on his notepad.

Sasuke didn't know what it was but it was probably a report of the mission or something.

Sai finished writing and rolled up the scroll, before summoning an ink bird to bring the scroll over to the Hokage, in order to let her know about their arrival.

Somewhere else in the village:

Hyuuga Neji had finally reached his destination at an apartment near the Uchiha Compounds.

Before he could even knock on the door, the door opened, revealing a man probably in his early or mid-twenties. His long raven hair was neatly tied back in a ponytail, similar to Neji's, and his onyx eyes were slowing transforming to crimson ones.

The Sharingan.

Uchiha Itachi face the Hyuuga with blank eyes.

"Aah. I already know. I heard from the fangirls and fanboys. Wasn't so hard to piece the pieces together."

Neji scoffed at the man's ego. "Hn." He replied.

Then the two took off, towards the Konoha Hospital.

At the Hokage Tower:

An annoying tapping on the window woke Tsunade, the sixth Hokage, up.

She chucked a book towards the window, and with her inhuman strength, the window broke.

She groaned and glared at the ink bird, responsible for all the noise.

The bird squawked at her flew towards the desk, landing perfectly and then lifted up its leg, waiting for the Hokage to untie the scroll.

Tsunade did so and read the scroll.

_The team, consisting of Hyuuga Neji, Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Sai, Higurashi Akito, Higurahi Satoshi and Takahashi Taketo, has successfully captured Uchiha Sasuke, a missing-nin from Konoha._

Tsunade sighed in relief, and just skimmed until she saw the bottom of the scroll. There sprawled in small, neat handwriting, she recognized as Sai's, said, "Code Blue."

Tsunade scratched her head in confusion. 'What was Code Blue again?' Tsunade thought.

"Shizune!!" she called.

A woman in her mid-twenties, opened the door, her short hair messed up from running to fast over the room.

"Shizune! What's Code Blue?"

"Code Blue?"

"Hai."

Shizune thought for a while until she finally recognized the code and where it came from.

"It's one of the codes the Uchiha wrote for us to protect Sakura's memories, remember?"

"Huh?"

Shizune sighed and ran over to the desk and pulled out a small red notebook from its drawers. She quickly opened it and skimmed through the pages until she finally found the right code.

_Code Blue – used to warn people of the chances of a victim recovering his or her memories._

Tsunade scratched her head again confused.

"Huh?"

"Hokage-sama!!"

"Sorry!! I don't like Mondays!!"

Shizune sighed and watched the Hokage try to piece everything together.

'How is it that Tsunade-sama became the Hokage… or even one of the legendary Sannins?' Shizune thought, 'I guess every blonde just has his/her moments.'

"Hmmmmmmmmmm… used to warn people of a victim recovering memories? Sakura's obviously the victim because Itachi wrote out all the codes for her…. Hmmmmmmm… DAMNIT!! WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO HAPPEN ALL AT ONCE?!"

"Everything?" Shizune echoed, puzzled.

"Yes, first I run out of fucking Sake, it just has to be a fuckin morning and then the fucking Uchiha's fucking back and-"

"Uchiha?? You sent Itachi on a mission? I thought you told the elders th-"

"DID YOU JUST INTERRUPT THE HOKAGE, SHIZUNE?!" Tsunade interrupted, enraged.

"G-g-gomen."

"It's alright! And by the way… I didn't mean Uchiha Itachi… I meant Sasuke… You know the spiky haired emo teenager from like 4 and a half years ago."

Shizune gasped.

Tsunade continued, "Yeah… him… the one on Naruto's team… with Sakura… wait… he's the one Sakura loved before and why she was so depressed and HOLY MOTHER-FUC-"

Shizune interrupted again. "Um… Hokage-sama… Sorry to interrupt again but I think this means Sakura's in trouble then?"

"Hai!!" Tsunade chirped, and then suddenly growled, "No-one messes with my apprentice and gets away with it!! He's so gonna get executed!! Hmph!!"

"T-tsunade-sama?" Shizune said meekly, "What I meant was, If Sakura forgot everything before, that includes the Uchiha. Sasuke doesn't know that, so he might question her, since they did use to be teammates…"

She trailed off, hoping that the Hokage would have caught on by now…

Tsunade blinked. "And??"

Shizune sighed.

"CODE BLUE!! IF HE TALKS TO HER!! SHE MIGHT REMEMBER EVERYTHING!! CODE BLUE!! THAT MEANS THE JUTSU MIGHT GET RELEASED!!"

Tsunade gasped, finally getting it.

"HOLY MOTHER FUCKING SONOVABITCH!! SHIZUNE!! TIME TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!! NOW!!"

She then scurried off towards the building, leaving Shizune behind.

"Maybe I should be the Hokage…" Shizune said to herself.

She was about to run off to hospital as well before thinking… 'Why run when you can use jutsus?'

Shizune disappeared with a loud POOF!!

To be Continued?

Hehe… that was probably a more Humor chapter than Romance/Drama…

Sorry about that… I just need something to laugh at right now so yeah… hehe… oops…

That's it for now… hope you enjoyed that!! :D

Once again… I will try to update sooner… but I still make no promises 'cos I'd rather update using my laptop because I just can't type as well on computers as I do on laptops… weird huh? It's 'cos the keys on my laptop are a bit smaller and more together and a bit more bouncier?? I dunn….

Anyways… thanks for reading and please please please PLEASE review!!

:)


	4. Chapter 3

**Ups and Downs**

YAY!! The next chappies finally here!! Sorry for the wait!! I've been updating my sorta new story, replaced!! If you're a sasusaku fan… please read it and tell me what you think!!

:P

Anysways… just wanted to thank al2010 for reviewing the previous chapter!! :)

Kay… here we go…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

Blah – narrating thingy

"Blah" – talking

"BLAH" – yelling

'Blah' – thinking

_blah_ – flashback/recap or song…

**'blah' **– inner person speaking

Chapter 3

Recap

_"CODE BLUE!! IF HE TALKS TO HER!! SHE MIGHT REMEMBER EVERYTHING!! CODE BLUE!! THAT MEANS THE JUTSU MIGHT GET RELEASED!!"_

_Tsunade gasped, finally getting it._

_"HOLY MOTHER FUCKING SONOVABITCH!! SHIZUNE!! TIME TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!! NOW!!"_

_She then scurried off towards the building, leaving Shizune behind._

_"Maybe I should be the Hokage…" Shizune said to herself._

_She was about to run off to hospital as well before thinking… 'Why run when you can use jutsus?'_

_Shizune disappeared with a loud POOF!!_

End of Recap

"MY BELOVED YOUTHFUL CHERRY BLOSSOM!! WHAT HORROR HAS BEFALLEN ON MY POOR INNOCENT LITTLE BLOSSOM!!"

"I-It's okay L-Lee… Sakura-chan's fine." Hinata reassured the spandex-wearing shinobi, though her own eyes showed concern as well.

Naruto noticed this and wrapped his arm around the girl, comforting her.

"It'll be fine, Hinata-chan!! Dattebayo!!" he grinned, "Sakura-chan has always been a strong girl, even after all this!! She'll pull through for sure so that she can help us beat Sasuke-teme here!!"

Hinata smiled until a voice cut through.

"Who are you calling a teme, dobe?" Uchiha Sasuke scowled.

"HEY!! WHO ARE YOU CALLING A DOBE!! BETTER NOT BE ME!! 'COS I'M NO DOBE!! I'M THE FUTURE HOKAGE!! DATTEBAYO!!"

"The day Konoha picks you to become the Hokage is the day when my fucking fangirls will all go gay and leave me alone!!" (A/N: no offense was intended here!! I think gay people are cool!! XD)

"Those fangirls will go gay one day since they'll realize that their so called idol's jus some emo wannabe-snake pedophile!!"

"Better that than a wannabe-Hokage… or a wannabe-ramen king!! What'll you do?! Rename Konoha into Ichiraku?!"

"Well… well…" the blonde spluttered, "Ya know what?!"

"What?!"

"Well… your face!!"

Sasuke smirked while Naruto couldn't help but show his traditional fox-like grin.

A pair of eyes, that were secretly watching outside of the hospital, crinkled, revealing that the person who owned the eyes were now smiling.

'If only Sakura saw this before that jutsu… then she'd be truly happy.' Hatake Kakashi thought while watching the scene while crouching down next to the window, balancing on the windowsill. 'Team 7. Once more.'

Back in the room, Sai scoffed.

He was supposed to be giving the Hokage the report right now, instead of being stuck in the waiting room of the Konoha Hospital right now. When he had rushed towards the Hokage Tower, while dragging the Uchiha captive, he had been met with an empty room and later learned from an ANBU who had just left the tower that Tsunade had rushed towards the hospital.

It wasn't that he didn't care about Sakura. She was one of his 'important people' especially since she was the one who had helped him gain back his lost emotions and since she had helped him, it was his turn to return the favor. However, being stuck in a room with a dobe and a teme, with several other people who were now laughing at the two said earlier wasn't exactly what he had been expecting.

He sighed after feeling a spark of chakra outside the window. After a confirming glance from Neji, he said towards the window.

"Your chakra skills are getting worse Kakashi. You can come in now."

Sasuke and Naruto stopped their little squabble and everyone else joined them in turning their attention to the newcomer, a middle-aged man whose face was covered by a mask, hiding almost all of his face. All you could see was one eye and a bit of skin around it.

Kakahi chuckled, and jumped down into the room, his spiky gray bopping up and down as he jumped.

"So… the rumors are true!!" he said. "My student has finally returned!!"

"Hn." Sasuke rolled his eyes while Naruto grinned again.

Suddenly everyone in the room started laughing, even the stoic ones and the worried ones. It seemed that the light of Konoha was slowly coming back.

Inside the hospital room:

Tsunade sighed and glanced at the sleeping pink-haired kunoichi.

'Sakura… I've done all I can for now… the rest is up to you. Good luck.' And with that, the Hokage left the room to the awaiting visitors outside.

About a few moments later, thick lashes fluttered opened, revealing a pair of bright emerald orbs.

Sakura pushed herself up on the bed and yawned sleepily. 'Where am I.' She thought groggily.

"**You forgot already? Jeez…" **a familiar voice in her head drawled.

'Inner? I thought you left?'

'**Never mind… here lemme tell you what happened. That ummmm… stranger grabbed you from our Neji-kun… then he was yelling something in some language that I do not understand… then whoa… his eyes turned from black to red… blood red… then… BLACK!!'**

Sakura couldn't help but sweatdrop a little from her inner's explanation but nonetheless, thanked her.

'Oh yeah…' she thought quietly to herself, making sure her inner couldn't hear. 'That boy looked really familiar… I just can't put my finger on it. Why is it that I feel like once I'm about to remember something, it just fades from my memories?'

Sakura sighed.

She pushed herself up from the bed and walked towards the door, exiting it, and saw her friends.

"Sakura-chan!!" one hyper-active blonde yelled out.

"Saku-chan!!" three worried kunoichis yelled out.

"MY BELOVED YOUTHFUL CHERRY BLOSSOM!!" (A/N: Guess who!! ;))

"Sakura-san… are you okay." Another kunoichi asked politely.

"Sakura." Eight different voices greeted in unison.

Sakura giggled and replied, "Hi Naruto, Hina-chan, Ino-chan, Shizune, Lee-san, Tenten-san, Itachi-kun, Tsunade-shishou, Sai, Shika-kun, Kaka-sensei, Neji-kun and ummmm… uh…" she stopped once she realized Sasuke was there.

"Ummm… Hi? I'm Haruno Sakura?" she said politely again, but each of her statements came out more as a question due to her uncertainty.

Before Sasuke could due anymore harm, Neji cut in saying, "He's Sasuke, but Sakura, you need to come with Itachi and me to somewhere."

Sakura blinked. "Huh? Oh… kay then… Bye Naruto, Hina-chan, Ino-chan, Shizune, Lee-san, Tenten-san, Tsunade-shishou, Sai, Shika-kun, Kaka-sensei and Sasuke-san." Then before anyone could say anything else, the three of them left.

To be Continued?

Sorry for the really late update!! This chapter didn't go as long as I wanted it too!!

:P

It's hard for me to keep track of two different story so I really don't know why I posted Replaced?. I guess it's because I have a lot of ideas right now for both stories so I might as well post it before I forget!!

:)

Hope you liked this chapter!! Thanks for reading and please please PLEASE review!!

And please, any sasusaku fans... please please please go check out my new fic replaced? and tell me what you think about it!!

:)

thanxx again!!


	5. Chapter 4

**Ups and Downs**

YAY!! Another new chapter!! :) Anyways… thank you to the following for reviewing the previous chapter!! :D :

TeamTHEFT (thanx for the 2 reviews!!)

al2010

hotneji24

TEE-HEE!! Okay… onto the chapter!! XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

Blah – narrating thingy

"Blah" – talking

"BLAH" – yelling

'Blah' – thinking

_blah_ – flashback/recap or song…

**'blah' **– inner person speaking

Chapter 4

Recap

_Sakura giggled and replied, "Hi Naruto, Hina-chan, Ino-chan, Shizune, Lee-san, Tenten-san, Itachi-kun, Tsunade-shishou, Sai, Shika-kun, __Kaka-sensei, __Neji-kun and ummmm… uh…" she stopped once she realized Sasuke was there._

_"Ummm… Hi? I'm Haruno Sakura?" she said politely again, but each of her statements came out more as a question due to her uncertainty._

_Before Sasuke could due anymore harm, Neji cut in saying, "He's Sasuke, but Sakura, you need to come with Itachi and me to somewhere."_

_Sakura blinked. "Huh? Oh… kay then… Bye Naruto, Hina-chan, Ino-chan, Shizune, Lee-san, Tenten-san, Tsunade-shishou, Sai, Shika-kun__, Kaka-sensei__ and Sasuke-san." Then before anyone could say anything else, the three of them left._

End of Recap

It was all black until she suddenly saw a countless number of squares in front of her, in her mind. Each little square had a own picture in it, an image that looked so familiar… yet so unrecognizable.

Sakura squinted at each the images.

'Huh? That little girl in that one,' she thought, focusing her attention on one certain square in front of her. 'She looks like me… Whoa… that is me!!'

Sakura then noticed that the younger image of her was almost in all these squares, but as she looked through more squares, the copy of her would grow older and older, until 'it' looked like it was the same age as her.

Sakura was slowly beginning to panic. 'What… what's going on?!'

She then noticed that in the squares, weren't just images, but more of videos, and in them weren't just here, there were others too.

'That's Naruto, Hina-chan, Ino-chan, Shika-kun, Neji-kun, Kaka-sensei and what's his name again? Sasuke. Right.'

Sakura gasped. 'I see… all these little videos. They are what happened in my life.

She wasn't surprised that most of the squares were of Naruto, Kakashi and herself in them but what confused her was that there was way more of Sasuke than Neji.

'How can this be? I just met Sasuke though… I don't remember that one… or that one… same with that one…' Sakura pointed out a lot of the squares that contained unfamiliar scenes to her.

Suddenly, all the squares shattered, and Sakura froze. It had been strangely quiet earlier, but now all she heard was the pieces of the squares falling down, sounding like small pieces of glass, falling down.

Then, Sakura began hearing voices. Many of them. Some were familiar but the ones she didn't recognize bugged her the most.

"_Wanna go out with me to Ichiraku, Sakura-chan?!"_

"_Why would I go out with you, NARUTO!! Hmph… ano… Sasuke-kun? How about we hang out after this mission?"_

"_Hn. No."_

"_YOU'RE LATE KAKA-SENSEI!!"_

"_I'll protect you with my life Sakura-san!!"_

"_Now it's your guys' turn to watch MY back!!"_

"_Sakura… you have bloomed into a fine blossom!!" (A/N: This is from Ino and Sakura's fight in the Chuunin Exams!!)_

"_Hey look guys!! It's forehead girl!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"_

"_Sasuke will seek me out for his quest to power!! There is nothing you can do about it!"_

"_Don't leave Sasuke-kun!! Please!! If you stay, I'll make sure every day will be fun!! It'll be worth it!! Don't go!! If you do… I'LL SCREAM!!"_

"_Hn."_

"_Don't worry Sakura-chan!! I promise I will be Sasuke back!! It's the promise of a lifetime!!"_

"_I'm sorry I didn't keep my promise, Sakura-chan…"_

"_Sakura-chan!! Don't worry… I'll protect you!! Nyah Nyah!! MWUAHAHAHAHA!! What is it like Sakura? To be a burden that your teammates have to protect?" (A/N: I took this from one of the episodes where Naruto and Sakura go to Sound with Jiraiya to look for Sasuke!! Sorry if you couldn't tell!!)_

"_Good training today Sakura!! Maybe I'll teach you another medical jutsu tomorrow!"_

"_There was nothing I could do… I could only watch as Sasuke-kun and Naruto fought the enemy…I am a burden."_

Sakura grasped her head, frantically, her hands gripping fistfuls of her pink hair. She suddenly felt a feeling that she didn't like. One she hadn't felt in a long time… one she didn't want to.

'I feel… so lonely… so depressed.' Sakura began to cry silently, the only evidence of her crying was the trails of water sliding down her face.

Suddenly she heard a different voice, but this one was soothing, unlike the others that made her feel frantic.

"You want to forget, don't you Sakura…"

Sakura nodded, still silent.

"Very well."

However, the voices continued.

"_Thank you Sasuke-kun… I mean… it was you who saved me from the sand, right?"_

"_No… it was Naruto."_

"_Chiyo-sama!! She sniff… she sacrificed herself to save the Kazekage-sama."_

"_Orochimaru, fortunately for us, has already used the jutsu before gaining Sasuke, which means he will have to protect Sasuke for another three years…in other words… Sasuke is safe."_

"_Bye… Naruto… make us proud!!"_

"_Okaa-san!! Otou-san!! Don't leave me!! Stay with me here!! Don't die!!"_

"_Sakura-chan… Did you hear? Naruto's finally back!! With Jiraiya-sama!!"_

"_I've called all of you here on a S-ranked mission… Normally I wouldn't be sending newly ranked Chuunins with the ANBUs on such a mission but due to our numbers… I have no choice."_

"_This mission is to lure Ikeda Ryuu, a missing-nin from the Hidden Village of the Clouds. He should be around your age with blood red hair and cold blue eyes. Our ANBU has spotted him a few hundred miles east of the Sand Village. Rumors say that he loves to go into pubs, stripping clubs… ya know what I mean, so remember to check those. I'll give you up till six months to complete this mission. I have assigned Hyuuga Neji as the captain of this mission and Nara Shikamaru as co-captain. Any questions? Good… you will set off first thing tomorrow morning!! Good luck!!"_

"_Sakura… all I want to say to you is that I love you like a daughter so please… stay safe!!"_

"_Okay… I'm sorry to be saying this girls but three of you are going to have to go up there and be… you know… slutty to lure out this Ryuu dude…Ino, Temari and Hinata… that'll be you… Sakura… you will partner up with Naruto and remain hidden in the crowds like the other groups."_

"_No!! Do you really think that Hinata-chan can handle that?! At least Ino and Temari had at least some experience with being all seductive and stuff… since they've trained for those kind of missions… but Hinata has never been taught!! I will replace her spot!!"_

"_Your name's Sakura right? Hehe… cherry blossoms… is that why you smell so sweet? Wonder if you taste sweet as well?"_

"_Get off me?!"_

"_Gimme gimme more, gimme more, gimme gimme more!!"_

…

When Sakura realized that it was quiet again… she collapsed to the ground… relieved though obviously miserable. 'Where am I?! I wanna go home!! Neji-kun?! Where are you Neji-kun?!"

"_Hehe… what's wrong Sakura-chan? Need your teammates to protect you still?"_

Sakura felt faint again. 'Stop it!! I don't wanna hear it!! No… I'm not a weakling.

The voices continued, merciless towards the poor girl.

"_Naruto!! Don't die!! Why did you have to protect me?! Why?!"_

"_Well well well… seems like what's left of this team is one little harmless cherry blossom. Heh… I don't get it… why would so many sacrifice themselves just for this little failure… a pathetic excuse of a kunoichi!! You're a disgrace!! A weakling… no even worse… a burden."_

'Burden?' the thought echoed in Sakura's head, as if it was floating back and forth right in front of her, taunting her. 'No… I'm not a burden… I'm not a burden…' she repeated.

"Hn. Even Naruto is better than you when it comes to ninjutsu… you should be practicing on your ninja skills instead of flirting around, wasting your time. Hn."

Sakura froze. 'Who said that… who said that? Why does it hurt so much?'

"You're just a burden…the weak link of Team 7."

…

It became quiet again, but Sakura had already heard enough before. She didn't know why she was affected so much… even though she knew she wasn't the same pathetic girl the voices had been talking about.

'No… I'm not her…' Sakura told herself. 'I'm Haruno Sakura, the strong apprentice of shishou… and one of the top medic-nin of Konoha. I'm not weak… I'm not a weak link… and I'm not a burden.'

"You're right Haruno Sakura." It was the voice from before… the only one that hadn't taunted her.

"Where am I? What do you want with me? I just want to go home… now!!" Sakura replied back, trying her hardest to control her trembling voice from rising.

"Heh… I want nothing from you… except for you to forget."

'Forget?' Sakura thought.

"Yes… forget… forget everything… no harm done right? You said so yourself… you're not the same girl those voices were talking about…"

Sakura remained silent, deep in thought.

"I'll take your silence as an agreement. Now forget everything."

Sakura slowly complied to the soothing voice. The pieces of glass fixed themselves to the original little squares but Sakura now noticed that the scenes in them were different.

'Wha… What's going on?'

"It doesn't matter… you must forget everything."

'But what if I don't want to?' Sakura thought before she started to faint, collapsing onto the ground as everything around her went black.

It was unknown if the little resistance in her mind had done anything. "Goodbye, Sasuke-kun." Sakura whispered but she honestly didn't know why she did.

Sakura finally lost conscious.

Two pairs of eyes watched the now sleeping girl. One was blank, showing no emotions while the other one was surprisingly anxious.

"Did it work, Itachi?"

"Aah… the jutsu was successful. You may bring her back to either her house or the hospital, Hyuuga."

Neji sighed in relief and picked up the girl swiftly in his arms, happy to be able to finally reunite with his girlfriend.

'I'm sorry Sakura. I apologize for the lies I will be telling you once you wake up.'

Neji was about to exit the room when a voice caused him to stop for a while.

"Don't feel upset, Hyuuga. What you did for her was for her own good. You should know that by now. Without you helping me to treat her every once in a while, she would be dead." Said Itachi, comforting the ANBU captain in his special way.

"Aah."

To be Continued?

Yup!! That's it for now!! Though this chapter is sorta confusing, everything will be explained the next chapter so you're just gonna haveta wait!! XD

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!

Thanks for reading and please review!! :)


	6. Chapter 5

**Ups and Downs**

Hey everyone!! I'm really really really really really REALLY sorry for the wait!! I have no excuse this time… I just keep on procrastinating!! Sorry!!

:) but anyways… the next chapters here!! :D

But before I continue… I just wanna say thank you to the following for reviewing the previous chapter!!

Dreamergirl92813

TeamTHEFT

sakuralovewinsalways

al2010

Anyways… onto the chapter!! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

Blah – narrating thingy

"Blah" – talking

"BLAH" – yelling

'Blah' – thinking

_blah_ – flashback/recap or song…

**'blah' **– inner person speaking

Chapter 5

Recap

_"Did it work, Itachi?"_

_"Aah… the jutsu was successful. You may bring her back to either her house or the hospital, Hyuuga."_

_Neji sighed in relief and picked up the girl swiftly in his arms, happy to be able to finally reunite with his girlfriend._

_'I'm sorry Sakura. I apologize for the lies I will be telling you once you wake up.'_

_Neji was about to exit the room when a voice caused him to stop for a while._

_"Don't feel upset, Hyuuga. What you did for her was for her own good. You should know that by now. Without you helping me to treat her every once in a while, she would be dead." Said Itachi, comforting the ANBU captain in his special way._

_"__Aah."_

End of Recap

After Sakura left with Neji and Itachi, the rest of them left at the hospital room had ended up splitting up. Naruto decided to bring Hinata to Ichiraku for some ramen with Chouji following them, claiming he had also been craving for some ramen.

Tenten and Lee left too, to go train, leaving Ino, Shikamaru, Sai, Shizune, Kakashi, Sasuke and Tsunade behind.

"Hokage-sama…" Shikamaru drawled. "I believe it is time to explain everything to the confused Uchiha over there." He nodded his head towards Sasuke.

Sasuke scowled as they all dragged him towards the Hokage tower. They made him bow infront of the desk, where Tsunade sat, while the others stood or sat around him.

As the Hokage rambled on and on about how much stupid work she had done, and is still doing, because of his betrayal, Sasuke just looked around the room, his boredness obvious. The other people in the room just talked quietly among themselves about all the events that had happened.

Suddenly, the door opened, revealing the other Uchiha. Just as Sasuke was about to lash out at his brother and use his kunai to hurt him, Shikamaru quickly used his shadow jutsu on him, making him unable to move.

Itachi smirked at his brother before turning to the Hokage and said, "The jutsu is done. It was successful."

"Very good. Is she okay though?"

"Aah. The Hyuuga is tending to her in her house."

Tsunade sighed in relief. "Okay then. All of you guys leave except for Itachi and Sasuke. I would like to finally get this misunderstanding between the two brothers cleared."

"Hai." They left and since Shikamaru had released his jutsu, Sasuke could move again and grabbed his kunai and chucked it at his brother with perfect accuracy.

Tsunade sighed and deflected the weapon with her own before Itachi could, which would have started something she probably didn't want in her office.

"Uchiha, you are not supposed to be killing any Konoha citizens."

"He's a missing-nin, and a traitor, why do you defend him?"

"You are one too, and I defended you from the elders." Tsunade replied back in a flat tone.

"… But he killed the clan that lived in Konoha, I haven't killed a single person here, only wounded."

"That's because the one who you hurt physically was Naruto who had the Kyuubi inside of him to help… but I wouldn't the same about you hurting people emotionally." Tsunade replied in a cold voice, turning her head towards a picture of Sakura, Naruto and herself that was taken during Sasuke's absence. "Besides, Itachi only killed one citizen and that was out of self-defense."

"…?"

"That person was none other than… Uchiha Shisui."

"…!!" Sasuke widened his eyes before narrowing it again.

Flashback

A young Sasuke hid behind a wooden pole, listening to 3 men yelling at Itachi about him not going to the meeting

'_Aniki… so he really didn't go to the meeting last night.'_

_One of the three men spoke. " I can understand that you've been occupied with various missions since you joined ANBU. Your father also told us that, and he's looking over you, however, we have no intent of treating you any differently."_

"_I understand… I'll be more careful from now on… please leave."_

"_Yeah… but before we do, there's one more thing you need to answer." Another voice spoke up. "It's regarding the suicide by drowning in the Nakano River last night of Uchiha Shisui."_

_Itachi flinched._

'_Suicide?!' thought the young boy._

"_The other man that did not arrive last night was Shisui. I thought that you considered Shisui as a true brother."_

_Itachi closed his eyes and opened them again before reply, "I see… I haven't met with him recently. It is sad to hear."_

"… _so we police force have decided to investigate this incident fully."_

"_An investigation?"_

_One of the men took out a piece of paper from his pocket before saying, "This is Shisui's suicide note. We already finished the handwriting analysis. It is no doubt his handwriting…"_

_The last man continued, "However, for those who can use the Sharingan, it's quite easy to forge one's handwriting."_

'…_?!' Sasuke broke out into cold sweat, shocked on what he is hearing._

_Itachi took the note that said:_

I'm tired of the duties…

_There is no future for Uchiha… and for me…_

_I cannot walk out the "path" any further…_

"He was feared as Shisui of the mirage, and one of the most talented Uchiha, he was someone who'd do any mission for the clan. I doubt that a man like him would leave something like this behind and die."

_Itachi narrowed his eyes and said, " It's not wise to judge others by your preconceptions and their appearances."_

"_I'm going to leave that will to you… take that to the ANBU and request that they investigate as well."_

"……… _understood." Itachi replied back in a monotone voice._

_As the 3 men walked off talking about how they hoped to find more evidence about the death, Itachi suddenly growled out, "Why don't you be more direct."_

_The men turned around as Itachi continued, "So, you are suspicious of me?"_

"_Yes brat. Listen Itachi, if you betray the clan, you won't go unpunished."_

_Suddenly, the three men flew back with Itachi glaring at them. "As I've said just now… don't judge others… simply by your preconceptions and their appearances. You assumed that I have patience. The clan, the clan, you all fail to measure your own capacity, and to see the depth of my capacity, and as a result you lie beaten here."_

'_I've never seen aniki like this.' Sasuke was now shaking with fear._

_Suddenly the voice of Uchiha Fugaku sounded out, "Stop Itachi. Stop it already. What in the world is wrong? Itachi, you have been acting strange lately."_

"_Nothing is strange. I'm just carrying out my duty."_

"_Then why didn't you come last night?"_

"… _in order to reach the height…"_

"_The what?"_

_Suddenly Itachi took out a kunai and whipped it towards the Uchiha clan symbol that was on the wall nearby._

"… _of my capacity… I have lost all hope for this pathetic clan." Itachi spoke out, "You forget what is most important to you because you cling on to something small like your clan. True change cannot be made if it's bound by laws and limitations, predictions, and imagination."_

_Just as the 3 men approached Itachi with anger, Sasuke cried out "STOP IT ANIKI!!"_

_Suddenly, Itachi fell onto his knees and said, "It wasn't me who has killed Shisui, but for the words I have spoken I am deeply sorry."_

_After the three men left, Fugaku said in a very disappointed tone, "Itachi, let's go back inside."_

_But… just as Itachi turned around, Sasuke caught a glance of his eyes… that were now blood red with 3 dots around his pupil._

'_Aniki…'_

End of Flashback

'Tsunade is being unreasonable. It was Itachi who murdered Shisui in order to gain the Mangekyou Sharingan.'

When Sasuke voiced out his thoughts, he was surprised to see Tsunade smirk.

'I just told her to stop being unreasonable and that Itachi murdered Shihsui and all she does is smirk??'

"You see… Uchiha… your brother did indeed kill Shisui bu-"Let me explain Tsunade."

The Hokage nodded her approval towards the elder Uchiha.

"Long time no see ne… otouto?"

"Shut up you bastard."

"I never knew about the Mangekyou Shaingan… It wasn't me who found the scrolls but Shisui." Itachi said in the soft voice he would use back then before the massacre, when he would try to explain something to the younger Uchiha.

"…" Sasuke just glared at him.

"UCHIHA!! QUIT GLARING AT HIM!! HE YOUR DAMN BROTHER FOR PETE'S SAKE!!"

Sasuke ignored her and kept on glaring.

Tsunade was starting to get a tad bit irritated here. 'It seems it wasn't that bright of me to keep Itachi in here to explain.' She thought.

"Itachi… nevermind, I'll just explain it to him. You can leave now." Tsunade instructed, rubbing her temples wearily.

"Aah." He left as well.

The annoyed Sasuke turned to the Hokage, clearly wanting information.

Tsunade sighed. 'Now… where am I supposed to start?'

To be Continued?

Sorry again for the wait!! But I hope you were able to enjoy this chapter!!

Thanks for reading and please please PLEASE review!! :


	7. Chapter 6

Ups and Downs

Hey everyone!! As usual… thank you to the following for reviewing the previous chapter!!

TeamTHEFT

Dreamergirl92813

Sakuralovewinsalways

Now onto the chapter!! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

Blah – narrating thingy

"Blah" – talking

"BLAH" – yelling

'Blah' – thinking

_blah_ – flashback/recap or song…

**'blah' **– inner person speaking

Chapter 6

Recap

"_UCHIHA!! QUIT GLARING AT HIM!! HE YOUR DAMN BROTHER FOR PETE'S SAKE!!" _

_Sasuke ignored her and kept on glaring._

_Tsunade was starting to get a tad bit irritated here. 'It seems it wasn't that bright of me to keep Itachi in here to explain.' She thought._

"_Itachi… nevermind, I'll just explain it to him. You can leave now." Tsunade instructed, rubbing her temples wearily._

"_Aah." He left as well._

_The annoyed Sasuke turned to the Hokage, clearly wanting information._

_Tsunade sighed. 'Now… where am I supposed to start?'_

End of Recap

"Okay… where to start?"

"Itachi."

"Er… well to put it down short. Shisui faked his death suicide then came back to kill the Uchiha Clan and being Uchiha Shisui of the Mirage and one of the bests of the Uchiha Clan, he succeeded in doing so except for you and Itachi. Of course, Itachi was another prodigy and honorable shinobi of the Uchiha Clan, so he defeated Shisui, killing him."

Tsunade paused to make sure that the teen was following along and understanding what she had said so far. When she was satisfied, she continued.

"Itachi, being the good friend he was, wanted his 'brother' to die while still having an honorable name. So…" The Hokage trailed off, trying to find the right words.

"He lied to me and created fake images with the Mangekyou Sharingan." Sasuke finished for her, his face blank as usual but the Hokage could have sworn that she saw a flicker of remorse in those cold onyx eyes.

"Itachi did a lot even for his so-called best friend, even after the betrayal." Tsunade said gently to the boy. "He never wanted to lie to you. You should forgive him. Everyone else in the village has already done so and has accepted him. You should as well."

"…" Sasuke remained silent. 'All of this. All that I've done and strived for.' Sasuke thought, 'it was all for a lie. I've taught myself to only hate… all that stuff to become stronger to avenge my clan on the wrong person?"

Sasuke was about to turn and leave the room until Tsunade stopped him.

"Wait!! You are not allowed to leave yet. I haven't talked to you about your punishment yet!!"

"Hn."

Tsunade sighed before saying in a very soft voice, "You lucked out, Uchiha… the elders can't hold a trial or execute you because of Sakura."

Tsunade's expression had changed, now only showing grief, regret, sorrow and other unpleasant emotions.

"…?" Sasuke noticed the change in her facial expression and waited patiently for her to go on.

"While you were gone, Sakura became one of the best medics of Konoha, and that made her famous, earning her the title of Konoha's innocent little cherry blossom. She's the Konoha sweetheart. There isn't anyone who does not know her, and everyone loves her, including the elders. They admired her, how she became so strong even when she didn't have anything to give her an advantage."

Tsunade's expression softened as she continued.

"You had the Sharingan and was one of the Uchiha Clan, Naruto had the Kyuubi, Neji and Hinata had the Byakugan, Shino had his bugs as Kiba had Akamaru, Shikamaru had his shadow technique as well as his high IQ, Ino had her soul-switching jutsus carried from her clan… and so on… Sakura is the only one who has made it so far without anyone of her family being a ninja. Her determination and hard work paid off, and everyone in the village admires her and respects her." Tsunade finished off with a proud smile.

"Anyways… you know should know about Orochimaru's plan for using you as a vessel after the 3 years you trained with him, right."

Sasuke nodded again, "That's when I defeated him." His voice held some pride in it and the Hokage wasn't surprised. A legendary Sannin being defeated by a rookie genin was indeed a great deal.

"Well, every once in a while, we would hold a little festival and everyone would be required to participate. The festival that was held the day after we marked you dead, was when Sakura got abducted." Tsunade said grimly.

"Abducted?" Sasuke echoed.

"Hai. Sakura was on the stage singing when they abducted her. It was right in front of everyone including the elders and me, the ANBU. No one sensed them coming."

"Them?" Sasuke repeated, confused.

"Mystery-nins. We still don't know where or who they are."

Nod.

"We looked every where for her but we couldn't find her anywhere. It wasn't only us who were searching. Sand joined us as well. Finally, three months went by. We gave up and was about to declare her as a killed ninja until Itachi showed up suddenly with a bloody unconscious Sakura in his arms. We were all confused on why he was there and why he had Sakura. We quickly captured him, but he didn't fight back at all." Tsunade continued.

"Aah."

"Turns out, he had quit the Akatsuki and while escaping the Akatsuki base, he had ran into the mystery-nins and Sakura. The nins fled after seeing his Sharingan, leaving him with Sakura."

'Why would he have saved her though?' Sasuke thought. 'Maybe he is innocent from the massacre but why would he go out of his way to Konoha, just to help her?'

"They were immediately sent to the hospital to be healed, and Itachi's room was heavily guarded by ANBU. However, during their recovery, the nins came back and attacked Sakura's room. We don't know how the ninjas were able to sneak into the entrance of the village and into the hospital, but we were sure they were ready to abduct Sakura again."

"…!!" Sasuke finally let his surprise grace his features.

"Somehow, Itachi was able to get there in the last second before they got away with her, but then, they then a jutsu that exploded the room. Fortunately, Itachi was able to save both Sakura and himself."

'Why would they want Sakura though?' Sasuke wondered to himself.

"Itachi told us later on that they used some kind of weird justu on her. We still don't know what jutsu it was but it almost killed her. Her heart rate was slowing down and she almost stopped breathing… it was like her body was shutting down. Of course, I tried to heal her but her body just wouldn't accept the chakra, like she wanted to die." Tsuande continued, " I think it was out of depression, because Sakura has been through a lot of hardships for the past years like…" Tsunade stopped herself and looked at the Uchiha's questioning gaze.

"… Naruto will explain that part, I just want to tell you what happened later on."

Nod.

"We were going to give up on her until Itachi barged into the emergency room and claimed that he knew how to help. He said that he would help save Sakura in exchange for something else that he would request."

"A bargain?" Sasuke asked.

"Hai. You see, it happened like this." Tsunade slowly explained.

Flashback

"_Shoot!! Sakura hang on!!" Tsunade yelled desperately._

"_It won't work Hokage-sama!! Her body isn't responding to the chakra!! It seems she has no will to live!!"_

_Tsunade ignored the medic-nin and sighing, the medic left the room after glancing at the frantic Hokage attempting to heal the wounded pink haired girl._

'_Sakura… not wanting to live?!' Tsunade scrunched up her face in frustration. 'How could this be?! She's always so happy!! Always smiling!! What's wrong with her?'_

'_After all the stuff she's been through these three years… how could she not be depressed?' a voice in her head reminded her._

"_SAKURA-CHYAN!! ARE YOU OKA-ITAI!!" Tsunade heard Naruto yell from the hallway._

'_What happened to the idiot?! Guess Ino bonked him on the head… not surprised…he should be quiet in the hospital after all…kay Tsunade… concentrate…concentrate!! We can save Sakura. I can do this…' Tsunade chanted in her head._

"_I-I-I…"_

'_Naruto's stuttering?! Ino shouldn't be THAT scary… no not Ino, she's just PMSing and worried…'_

_BAM!!_

"_You're surrounded now… go back to your room and stay in there!! No one is allowed to enter this room!! Especially you so go back before we use force!!" The voice of a normally stoic ANBU captain sounded._

'_The Hyuuga is…yelling?? What the hell is happening out there? I should go out… wait no… not now… Sakura still needs help!! SAKURA!! HANG ON!! DON'T GIVE UP!!"_

"_Y-You… grrr…" Naruto seemed to have waken up from his scared state and had started growling in a very unlike Naruto way… in fact… Tsunade was starting to think that the Kyuubi had started taking over him._

"_Calm down jinchuuriki." _

_Wait… that voice._

_POOF!!_

"_Where did he go?!" a panicking Naruto started wailing._

"_Shut up dobe…he's in the room!! HURRY!!" Neji ran into the room, deactivating his Byukugan_

_It was then that Tsunade realized that the girl she was desperately trying to heal wasn't in the special pod used for healing anymore. Looking up, she saw the young kunoichi… in the arms of a missing-nin from Konoha._

"_Uchiha… Itachi."_

_Itachi smirked._

"_Let her go!! NOW UCHIHA!!" Tsunade couldn't help but let her emotions get the better of her. Hell!! This girl was almost like her daughter and she's barely able to live so being in the arms of an S-classed missing nin won't help at all!! Even though he was the one to bring her back to Konoha, safely._

_BAM!!_

"_LET HER GO!!" two voices yelled, their voices echoing in room._

_Naruto and Neji had forcefully kicked open the locked door and ran into the room._

"_Let her go Uchiha!!" Naruto growled out but then his voice suddenly became desperate. "Please let her go!! I'll go with you to the Akatsuki base!! Just leave her alone!!"_

"_It's not wise to let your emotions get the better of you, jinchuuriki." Itachi said back quietly. "But then again… who can blame you!! Even your own Hokage can't control her emotions!!" He continued as his head gesturing towards Tsunade, who now had tears in her eyes._

"_Uchiha." Hyuuga Neji was death-glaring at the missing-nin, getting ready to fight to get Sakura back._

"_Hehe…It seems this one little kunoichi is the weakness of all the powerful and most feared ninjas from the ever so famous and powerful Konoha." Itachi chuckled darkly._

_Naruto and the others couldn't say anything back towards that. It was true. Everyone in Konoha was attached to the girl and loved her so much that many of them would give up their lives for her. Sakura's death would be a deadly blow to the village._

"_Don't worry. I can release this girl if you want it that badly. I can even save her if you want… but not for free of course."_

"…_?!" Neji widened his eyes in surprise, accidentally letting his guard down._

"_Nani?!" The Hokage stood there._

_Naruto didn't seem surprise at all though._

"_Like I said earlier. I will go with you… just release her in return."_

_Itachi smirked. "Who said I wanted you… You mean nothing to me right now… I'm not part of the blasted Akatsuki anymore…"_

"_Then what do you want." Neji suddenly found his voice to speak._

"_I want…" Itachi hesitated; surprising the others. It was very rare for a Uchiha to hesitate._

"_I want another chance." He finished._

"_A-another chance?!" The Hokage echoed in astonishment._

"_Indeed. I want to be able to live here again… as a normal shinobi and not as a missing-nin… I want to be welcomed by the citizens again… be their hero again… not their fear. But as Itachi… not Uchiha."_

_He continued._

"_The only crime I committed was leaving Konoha and killing a man, but that I would have to explain later. I can tell you from my Sharingan that your beloved blossom won't be able to hold on any longer but whether I help or not is up to you… Hokage-sama." Itachi suddenly went down on his knees, and carefully placed, Sakura down gently on the ground but he stayed there afterward, bowing to the Hokage. _

"…" _To say that the Tsunade was stunned would be an understatement._

"_Obaa-chan!! Please!! Do it for Sakura-chan!! Please!! I'll stop asking for missions!! PLEASE!! AGREE WITH HIM ALREADY GOD DAMNIT!! PLEASE ACCEPT!! I'LL STOP ANNOYING YOU ASKING FOR RAMEN!! JUST PLEASE!! I BEG YOU… Hokage-sama…" Naruto went down on his knees too._

"_N-naruto…"_

_Naruto had just called her by her title… not obaa-chan or Granny Tsunade like he usually did..._

_Neji was also on his knees down… also surprising the Hokage… only god would know how the Hyuuga was able to cast aside his huge ego just to try and save Sakura._

"_Hokage-sama."_

"_I need some time to think about this…" Tsunade finally responded. "If I wasn't a Hokage, I would've agreed but I need to talk about the citizens of Konoha first!! As Hokage I must think about their safety."_

_Itachi nodded solemnly. He took a look at the sleeping girl. "Three days and three nights. After that, I will not be able to assist anymore. Send a messenger to the Uchiha Mansion to tell me what you think."_

_With that, he turned to leave._

_Pausing at the door, he turned back and said, "If you are to attack me, I will fight back… be aware of that."_

_Itachi left._

End of flashback

"…" Sasuke didn't say anything, he just sat there, still letting the newly obtained information go through his head as Tsunade continued her tale.

To be Continued?

Whoa… that was really long!! But sadly, don't expect all chapters to be this long because I honestly don't think I will be able to!! Sorry!!

I'm really excited though because I was able to find a way to insert one of my favorite songs into this story but that chapter won't come for a while!!:( The song comes more towards the end of the story!! :P

Anyways, I hoped you like this chapter!! Thanks for reading and please review!!

:


	8. Chapter 7

**Ups and Downs**

Thank you to the following for reviewing the previous chapter!!:) It really does mean a lot to me!!:DDD

TeamTHEFT

al2010

sakuralovewinsalways

Now the chapter:

Recap

The middle of a flashback

_Itachi nodded solemnly. He took a look at the sleeping girl. "Three days and three nights. After that, I will not be able to assist anymore. Send a messenger to the Uchiha Mansion to tell me what you think."_

_With that, he turned to leave._

_Pausing at the door, he turned back and said, "If you are to attack me, I will fight back… be aware of that."_

_Itachi left._

_End of flashback_

"…" _Sasuke didn't say anything, he just sat there, still letting the newly obtained information go through his head as Tsunade continued her tale._

End of Recap

Yamanaka Ino sat gray stone bench that was near the borders of Konoha. She had sent her boyfriend away on his mission with a smile but he wasn't able to see it was a fake one.

Flashback

_The couple left the Hokage Tower and Ino was about to ask her precious Shika-kun if he wanted to come help her out in her flower shop until he quickly said._

"_Ino… I'll see you later. I have to go to Sand quickly to give visit Temari and give her this scroll. It contains some information that she wants. I think the three Sand Siblings are visiting soon, including Gaara."_

"_Huh? You're going by yourself?"_

"_I was going to go with Chouji but it seems he ditched me for some ramen."_

_Ino quickly asked, "How about I come with you? Sand is only a few hundred miles away and I have nothing to do now."_

"_I'm fine going alone." Shikamaru answered quickly. Before Ino could say anything else, he quickly leaped towards the gates. "See ya!! I should be back by latest, tomorrow afternoon!!"_

_Ino forced a smile and waved but once she could no longer see the figure of the Nara, her hand dropped and her smile faded._

End of Flashback

'Why does it have to be to Sand? Why does he have to be the one to deliver it to her? It seems like he was so eager to leave and it's Shikamaru!! He's never excited for anything!!'

Ino's sky blue eyes were brimmed with tears but she wiped them away hurriedly before they could fall. It wasn't like she didn't have any faith in her boyfriend, it was more like she had less faith in herself. Yup you're right. The always cheerful and outspoken blonde that everyone in Konoha knew was secretly insecure of herself.

'What if he decides to leave me for her? They would look good together after all… Temari's more mature and apparently not as troublesome. She's a lot more prettier than me too.'

Ino sighed.

Ino wasn't a bratty and bossy girl that some people always assumed she was because she was a blonde and really loud. She was just a girl who would stand up for her friends and she spoke out her mind a lot. But whenever she was hurt, she would just keep it to herself, keeping a fake smile on her face to make sure no one else could tell. No one could ever see through smiles, not even her beloved Shika-kun.

'Well… besides Sakura-chan I guess… before she lost her memory during that stupid fucking mission!!'

Ino sighed.

'Okay… that's it… I'm Yamanaka Ino!! Not some insecure girl who always needs a shoulder to lean on!! I shouldn't be complaining about my own life when my friends have been through worst!! I'm going to be the shoulder everyone will depend on instead of the crying person.'

Ino smiled and walked off towards her flower shop while still in deep thought.

'I wonder how Sakura-chan is right now? Now that Sasuke's back… it's just going to make everything more complicated. After he first left, it took a while to get her cheery and bubbly personality back but we got it back and now she's even the girlfriend of Neji!! Sasuke better not ruin everything!!'

But then again… not everything was Sasuke's fault. The attack of the village wasn't exactly under his control. The mission that S-ranked mission with that bastard Ryuu wasn't his fault either. It was the same with the Sakura's abduction by the mystery-nins.

'Well… it wasn't ALL his fault but we fixed everything we could… thanks to Itachi-kun and it took forever so he better not screw it up!! If he does I'm so gonna kick his as-' "ITAI!! Ow… that hurt."

While Ino was in deep thought, she had bumped into her best friend, the one she had been worrying about, and the impact had sent both of them to the ground.

Sakura quickly got up.

"Oh sorry Ino-chan!! I didn't see you there." Sakura smiled apologetically at the blonde while sticking a hand out to help the girl up.

"S-Sakura-chan!! It's okay. I'm sorry!! I shoulda been paying attention to where I was going!!' Ino replied with a smile, while accepting her hand.

Sakura noticed that her friend had been in deep thought before and still was.

"Ino-chan? Is something wrong?! Is there anything I can help with?"

Ino didn't hear her because she was still thinking.

'If it had been in the past… we would be teasing each other first. I would be saying how her huge forehead got in the way while she would tell me to shut up Ino-pig. And then we would burst out laughing. But now… it's just sorry Ino-chan and sorry Sakura-chan.' Ino thought while sighing. 'It's so different.'

"Ino-chan? Ino?! INO!!" Sakura repeated over again trying to get the blonde's attention.

"Huh?" Ino snapped out of her thoughts. By instinct, she forced up another fake smile and asked, "Is something wrong?"

Sakura frowned, which was a rare thing for her to do. "I should be asking you that Ino-chan. Is there something you want to tell me?"

Ino sighed and didn't bother to keep the fake smile. 'Wow… even now she's able to see through these smiles. Guess I was wrong.'

Sakura's eyes softened at her friend. She pulled the other kunoichi into a hug and after they let go of each other, she smiled and said, "C'mon!! You should come with me for some ice cream!!"

"I would Sak but I have to go back to the flower shop!! I promised mom I'd work today." Ino answered apologetically.

"Oh… oh well we'll just go buy some to eat there then!!" Sakura chirped excitedly since she had been craving some ice cream for a while.

After a while, the two of them ended up in Ino's flowershop with a pint of cookie dough flavored ice cream.

Ino scooped out another spoonful with her spoon and asked before popping it in her mouth, "Where's Neji? Didn't you leave the hospital with him?"

"Oh… he's sleeping in my house. I woke up in bed and he was sleeping in a chair next to me so I carried him onto the bed a left him there. He's probably still tired from the mission." Sakura said thoughtfully.

"Probably…" Ino said. "Even though all the guys try to act all macho and strong… they all still get tired in the end."

Sakura laughed at the blonde's comment. "Oh yeah… why were you so sad earlier?"

Ino sighed. "It's rather a long story. I'd prefer not to talk about it."

"Okay then but if you ever need someone to talk to… I'll always be here for you!!" Sakura said kindly.

"Hai. Arigato Sakura-chan." Ino smiled.

Sakura laughed again. "For what? That's what friends are for afterall!! Oh!! Is that really the time?! I gotta go!! I still need to go buy something for Neji to eat after he wakes up!! Buhbyeee Ino-chan!!"

Ino waved. "Bye Sakura-chan!"

Somewhere else in Konoha:

_Knock_

_Knock_

"Come in." a monotone voice spoke. Itachi opened his eyes, revealing the crimson red orbs before turning it off, transforming the man's eyes back to the original onyx color.

'It's about time you came… otouto…'

The door opened, revealing a younger version of the man.

"…"

"Yes… Sasuke?"

"Aniki… I…" Sasuke sighed. The words he wanted the say just didn't seem to want to come out of his throat.

"Aah… I understand otouto." Itachi wasn't stupid. Once Sasuke acknowledged him as his brother, he knew that he had already been informed of the truth behind the massacre.

"Why… Why did you lie to me?!" Sasuke's voice seemed to rise. "You should have stayed with me!! Things would have been different!!"

Itachi sighed.

"I understand that you feel guilty as much as you don't want to admit it. It was my fault as well, to keep Shisui's name cleared in exchange for your innocence."

'If Aniki didn't change the truth behind the massacre, everything would have been different… more pleasant and happy and… fun…' Sasuke thought to himself. 'Maybe I wouldn't have been so… unhappy and lonely. Loneliness eh?'

"_Loneliness… it's just a bit different from having your parents mad at you."_

"_You're annoying…"_

"_You taught me Sasuke-kun!! That loneliness is a painful thing!! Right now I know your pain!! I have many friends and family whom I all love but if you were to leave… to m-me… I would be just as alone as you."_

'Sakura… she wouldn't have been through all of this…' Sasuke thought furiously while her voice kept on ringing through his head, repeating many words she had said to him before, from the time they were seven and eight, to the time of their genin-team.

"Sasuke-kun!! After we get back to Konoha, wanna go with me on a date??""Good morning Sasuke-kun!! C'mon!! We're gonna be late for school!!"

"_Sasuke-kun!! I love you with all my heart!! Don't leave!!"_

"_Let's race Sasuke-kun!! I'm gonna win!!"_

"_Sasuke-kun!! Daijoubu?!"_

_"Sasuke-kun!!"_

_"NARUTO!! DON'T TALK TO SASUKE-KUN LIKE THAT!!"_

'Sakura… all you have been through is partly my fault.' Sasuke thought miserably, 'I could tell from the first we met after I left. Your eyes held so much pain. And afterwards… all the crap you've been through when I was gone… stuff that I could have protected you from.'

Itachi noticed how his brother's anger was fading slightly. He immediately knew the cause of it.

"You're thinking about her, ne otouto?"

"Hn."

"I guess I should tell you something else, but if you are to be angry, remember that it is only my fault."

"…"

"Only my fault, not Sakura's…"

The name that was spoken caught the interest of the Uchiha.

"Aah…"

"She knew the truth… before all this happened…"

"…?!" Sasuke was puzzled…

"Otouto… what I mean is… before you left… before you, her and Naruto were placed in a team…"

"Nani…?!"

"Aah…"

Flashback

_The blond hokage sighed, after hearing the footsteps approaching the door._

"_Come in…" she drawled._

"_Hokage-sama!!" ANBU entered her office, all of them surrounding one man._

"_All of you can leave… except for you!!" she commanded, her honey brown eyes set upon the ANBU's captive._

"_Hai!!"_

_The ANBU left the room quickly._

"_Tsunade… you've decided then?"_

_The hokage looked straight at the Uchiha's red eyes, ignoring the voice in her head reminding her of the risks at looking at the Sharingan._

"_Hmph… the elders agreed with your proposal."_

"_Very well then… what time do you want me to heal Sakura at?"_

'_He knows her name?! … but then again… Sakura's the kunoichi of Naruto's team, and Itachi should've been doing research on Naruto before attempting to abduct him.' Tsunade didn't answer until her observant eyes stopped analyzing the man in front of her._

"_Noon…"_

"_Aah…" Itachi turned to leave._

"_Matte… wait…"_

_Itachi turned back, giving the Hokage a questioning gaze._

_The blonde stumbled on her next words._

"_I-I…t-the…" Tsunade took a deep breath before spilling out all the questions that had bubbled into her mind ever since the meeting with the elders, "The jutsu is safe right? You know how it's done properly?! Has anyone broken it before?! Does it have a high chance in succeeding?! Is it-"_

_The Hokage was cut off when Itachi chuckled._

"_My my… aren't you worried about her…" He stated more than asked. He was answered with the small blush of embarrassment on the woman's face._

"_As Hokage… you shouldn't show such weaknesses in front of anyone, moreover me, a S-classed missing-nin. This is what I mean, love is a weakness." Itachi continued, "This is why all the missing-nins wonder how Kohoha has survived for so long, even when it's weakness is so obvious. One girl attracts the love and happiness of all of Konoha's best and most powerful fighters… She's gone, and Konoha collapses!!"_

_The Hokage spluttered with humiliation and anger._

"_SHUT UP AND JUST ANSWER MY QUESTIONS DAMNIT!!"_

_Itachi smirked._

"_I've used the jutsu plenty of times, including my brother… as well as myself…"_

"_How can you use it on yourse-" The Hokage had interrupted him until she in turn was interrupted as well._

"_Hn… there are indeed some other… effects that must be taken immediately but I'll explain more later…" Itachi drawled, "But…out of all the people I've used the jutsu on… only one… besides me… was able to break the jutsu…"_

"_Who?!"_

_Itachi smirked._

"_Haruno Sakura."_

End of flashback

"You're telling me you used that jutsu on Sakura before?!" Sasuke growled out, his over-protectiveness of Sakura getting the better side of him. If Itachi didn't explain fast, there would be hell to pay.

To be Continued?

Sorry if it had been a long wait… I really am!! I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!!:)

Just to let you know… I have no idea when the next update will be since I'm going over to live with some relatives over the summer. I have no idea if I will have internet connections with my laptop so yeah… I promise I will try to update as much as I can though!!

Anyways… thanks for reading and please review!!:


	9. Chapter 8

**Ups and Downs**

Hey everyone!! I hope you're having a fantastic summer so far!! Anyways… thanks to the people who reviewed the previous chapter:

al2010

hotneji24

TeamTHEFT

Anyways… lets get onto the chapter!!

Chapter 8:

Recap

_"You're telling me you used that jutsu on Sakura before?!" Sasuke growled out, his over-protectiveness of Sakura getting the better side of him. If Itachi didn't explain fast, there would be hell to pay._

End of Recap

Itachi's onyx eyes surveyed his younger brother. "Don't you find it strange that one day, Sakura was your best friend and only a few days afterwards, nothing more but a mere fangirl of yours."

Sasuke didn't say anything but thought back to when they were around seven, around the time of the massacre. He remembered the first time he had met Sakura, when she became his first best friend.

Flashback

_A seven-year-old Sasuke was walking into a forest, grumbling and complaining about his brother, Itachi. 'Stupid Itachi won't ever train me… Last time he said next time… and today he said next time again!! Next time my BUTT!! ARGH!! He makes me so mad!! He's such a liar!!'_

_As he walked deeper into the forest, he started to hear pants and groans of frustration. Curious, he walked towards the sound to see what it was._

_A young pink-haired girl was jumping up and down, her hand flailing over her head. It seemed like she was trying to reach the branches of the tree that she was jumping under._

"_Watcha doing?!" Sasuke asked, appearing behind the tree, confusion etched on his face._

_Sakura turned around to see the handsome raven-haired boy that she remembered her best friend, Ino, telling her about._

"_Who are you?!" Though she knew that he was Ino's crush, she honestly didn't know his name at all._

"_Uchiha Sasuke." The boy smirked, smoothing out his spiky hair with his hand; his Uchiha charms caused a light shade of pink to rise upon the young girl's face. "You are?"_

"_Haruno Sakura." The girl smiled then continued jumping up and down._

"_So what are you doing?" Sasuke asked again curious._

_Sakura stopped jumping up and down to respond to his question._

"_You see that red ribbon on that branch. It's mine!! The wind blew it outta my hair and on to the tree. I'm trying to get it down."_

"_Why not just get another one? Why go through so much trouble just to get a ribbon? My mom has loads of them, I can ask her to give you one!!"_

"_Thanks but no thanks!!" Sakura smiled. "You see, um, my best friend, Ino-chan, gave me that ribbon and it means a lot to me. It's a present from her and she's my first and only best friend so it's really really really really really really important."_

"_Oh… I get it." Sasuke smiled back, "I can ask my brother to help you get it down for you. Maybe he will."_

"_Really?! Could you please?! With a cherry on top?!" After Sasuke nodded, Sakura flung her arms around the boy while thanking him._

_Sasuke was shocked but he soon returned the hug. Finally they pulled away from each other, blushing. 'Uh-oh!! Do I have cooties now?! I need to go to the doctors afterwards!!' Sasuke thought worriedly while his face was pink._

_They stood there until Sasuke took her hand and pulled her towards his brother's training grounds. "C'mon!! Let's go ask him."_

_In the end, Itachi reluctantly got the ribbon out of the tree and handed it to the little girl._

"_Who are you?" He drawled out._

"_Haruno Sakura. Thank you so much!!" Sakura chirped back, looking up to see the famous Uchiha prodigy, but of course, she didn't know that._

"_Your welcome. I'm Itachi by the way." With that, he left leaving the two seven-year-olds behind._

"_U-Um… Sakura?!"_

"_Huh?"_

"_Well… I was thinking… if you would be my friend."_

"_Of course I'm your friend Sasuke-kun!! YAY!! I have a second best friend now!!" Sakura grinned at him. "Do you like strawberries? They're my favorite fruit!!"_

"_I never tried them before."_

"_You should come over to my house!! We have lots and lots of strawberries!! We can let you try some."_

"_Really?!"_

"_Of course!! After all, you're one of my best friends!!"_

_Smiling, the two kids walked out of the forest, hand in hand, heading towards Sakura's house._

End of Flashback

They quickly became great friends and their moms were pleased with their friendship. However, after the massacre when Sasuke went to go look for Sakura to tell her what happened and to find some comfort from her, Sakura acted like she didn't know Sasuke anymore, like she totally forgot they were best of friends. She would just blush and scribble _Uchiha Sakura_ all over her textbooks… which freaked out the younger Sasuke a lot. Now that Sasuke thought about it… it was weird. She went from great best friend to a mere annoying clingy fangirl.

Flashback

_A almost-eight-year old Sasuke was walking out of the hospital. He rubbed his red eyes that were sore from crying._

'_Why?! Why would Aniki do this?! Why!!'_

_Suddenly, he heard the familiar sound of laughter of his best friend, Sakura.._

'_Sakura. She'll be so sad. She was close to okaa-san, otou-san, and Aniki after all.'_

"_OH MY GAWD!! LOOK SAKU-CHAN!! IT'S SASUKE-KUN!! HEY SASUKE-KUN!! C'MERE!!"_

_Sasuke winced visibly at the shriek of Sakura's best friend, Yamanaka Ino._

"_Sakura…" Sasuke walked slowly up to the pink-haired girl who was now blushing._

'_Why is she blushing…like Ino…?! This is no time to be blushing!! My family just got killed and I want to tell you all of this and all you do is blush?' Sasuke thought frustrated to the pink haired girl but of course, she couldn't hear his thoughts._

_Much to his unpleasant surprise, the blushing girl hid behind the blonde, her head was peeking out behind the older girl._

"_Sakura… C'mon!! I need to tell you something!!" Sasuke started out._

_Ino giggled and whispered something to her friend, causing her to blush even more and frantically shake her head._

"_Saku-chan!! You can do it!! I know you can!!" Ino cheered. Sakura just blushed even more while smiling at the boy._

"_Can I first ask you something Sasuke-kun?" She asked out, her voice so low that Sasuke was barely able to here it._

"_Of course but hurry… I have to tell you something really important!! You need to know!!"_

"_W-will you be my boyfriend? I really like you and well you're really cute and yeah… so will you?" Sakura asked embarrassed yet hopeful at the same time._

_Sasuke just stared at her. "Hahaha Sakura." He said sarcastically. "Very funny but um no now let me tell you what happ-" He was interrupted by Sakura. "Why not? Do you not like me? You should!! I really like you!! You're cool, cute, hot and everything else!! We'd look really good together!! Doesn't Uchiha Sakura sound perfect?" Sakura said quickly, hoping to convince him otherwise._

"_No Sakura!! Quit being so… annoying!! I need to tell you what ha-" he was interrupted again by the girl but this time because she was crying loudly._

"_Ino-chan!! I was right!! Now he hates me and even called me annoying!! I'm not pretty and cool enough!!" Sakura sobbed out while running away dramatically, leaving Ino and Sasuke alone._

_Ino winked at Sasuke, "It's okay Sasuke-kun!! Everyone knows its only because you'd rather be with me than her!!" She grinned proudly of herself._

_Sasuke rolled his eyes and was about to correct her but he couldn't since Ino skipped off happily while hollering, "See ya around Sasuke-kun!! I love you!! Don't forget me!!"_

_Sasuke just blinked. 'What just happened?'_

End of Flashback

"So you used the jutsu on her? Why?" Sasuke asked. He was really mad now because he was confused and frustrated and he didn't like that.

Itachi sighed. "I didn't want to!! I really didn't but I had no other choice!! She played a great part of the massacre."

Sasuke waited for him to continue.

"After you and her became friends, you guys would hang around a lot in the Uchiha District. Every Uchiha knew of your guys' friendship and Sakura grew on all of them. Shisui knew this so he decided to use her as a hostage."

Flashback

_"Shisui!! Hurry up it's time to go to the meeting!" Itachi yelled to his best friend._

"_Yeah yeah… whatever… Hey! Help me find Sakura-chan quickly!! I have a little present for her." Shisui said._

"_What for? Her birthday was like five months ago." Itachi then noticed the huge teddy bear his friend was holding._

"_None of your business… oh look! There she is!!" Shisui pointed at a pink-haired young girl skipping happily out of a random house, not noticing the older boys standing from the distance._

"_Sakura-chan!! Come here for a second?!" Shisui waved to get her attention._

_When Sakura noticed them, she beamed and ran eagerly to the boys._

" _Itachi and me got you a little present from the Mist region from our previous mission." Shisui said to a young eight year old Sakura cheerily, while handing her the huge teddy bear that was practically bigger than herself._

_Sakura gasped dramatically, "Really Shisui-ni-san?! Arigato Shisui-ni-san!! Arigato Itachi-ni-san!!" She cheered while hugging the life sized teddy bear._

_Itachi faked a smile towards the girl and ruffled up her hair. "No problem Sakura-chan!! We're glad you love it so much." Sakura beamed and hugged the bear even more. Itachi sent a swift glare at the other boy around his age while whispering to him so that the other girl wouldn't hear, "Where did you get that from Shisui? We never had a mission to Mist since last year and I don't think you even knew Sakura back then!!"_

_Shisui grinned. "Just wanted to get a little something for our little princess. Is something wrong with that?!" Suddenly, a purple mist came out from the bear's mouth and surrounded the scared little girl. "AHHH!! Itachi-ni-san!! HELP!! Shisui-ni-san!!" she shrieked._

_Itachi immediately reached out to grab her but Shisui beat him. He took the girl quickly into his arms just as she fainted from inhaling the poison._

"_Shisui?! What did you do to her?! What kind of poison is in the bear? Forget that!! Now isn't the time!! Hospital!! Now!! Quick!!" Itachi ordered. However, Shisui ignored him and turned around to face him, letting Itachi see the kunai he was now holding to Sakura's neck._

"_Gather all of the Uchiha police and tell them to meet me in the secret cupboard__ the day after tomorrow at dawn__!! You know where I mean since you're the one who showed it to me!! If they don't listen… well… that's okay with me!! I have a little brat to take care of anyway!" Shisui ordered._

_Before Itachi could protest, he waved and then disappeared with a loud POOF!! In his and Sakura's place was just smoke. Itachi cursed incoherently and punched the ground with his fist in anger. He had no choice but to go leave to gather all the Uchiha police._

'_What is Shisui planning?' Itachi wondered to himself._

End of Flashback

"That was the 'scene at the river' and as you can see, I never drowned or killed Shisui. I never had the chance to tell the police before that so they didn't know at all. I was too busy trying to find Sakura and Shisui and when I couldn't find anything I came back too late to attend that blasted meething. I guess Shisui tipped the Uchiha police to go to the river and that's where they found a fake body and a fake suicide note." Itachi explained.

'Which then lead to the morning scene I saw when I was little. That's why Itachi didn't seem to care what happened to Shisui.' Sasuke thought, finally getting what had happened.

"That day at the cupboard was the beginning of the massacre. Shisui immediately murdered all the police who arrived in the secret room, right on the spot. He had an advantage since most of them were shocked that he was still alive. I was the last one to enter so I wasn't killed yet. Our fight went on for a few hours, and during that time Sakura woke up and started crying since she was scared and the poison in her body was very painful." Itachi explained. "Shisui realized that he couldn't defeat me so he disappeared with his jutsu leaving me and Sakura left in the room."

Sasuke interrupted quickly, "That's when he started killing everyone else right?"

"Hai. I had no idea what he was planning so I didn't bother to chase him. Instead, I was making sure that Sakura was all right and also trying to get the poison out of her. When she seemed like she was in a stable condition, we left the room to only find blood and corpses all over the place in the compound. It was so sickening." Itachi continued. "Sakura was so confused and scared. She was running to each and every dead body to see if the person had any chance of surviving which she never found. It was around then I heard the screams from okaa-san and otou-san."

Flashback

_Itachi entered his parent's room to find his parents and Shisui. His father was standing protectively in front of Mikoto while trying to fend off Shisui but Itachi could tell that that was it. Fugaku was too wounded to fight him off._

_Itachi immediately moved to protect his beloved parents but Mikoto caught his eye and shook her head furiously._

_"No! Itachi!! Don't!! Leave and go protect Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan!! Sasuke should be coming home any minute now and if Sakura-chan's still in the compounds she'll be in grave danger!! Leave!!" Mikoto cried._

_Itachi looked at her aggrieved. "I'm sorry mother. I won't be able to obey your orders." He whispered to her and was about to move towards Shisui to prevent the deaths of his parents when he realized he couldn't move._

_Shisui laughed evilly. "Can't move eh Itachi? While you were listening to your mother's words, I used my new jutsu on you. Don't bother breaking out of it. It'll be futile especially since I know all of your weak points and blind spots!"_

_Itachi growled and thought frantically for any way to break the jutsu to save what ever was left of his family._

_However, it was now too late. Itachi could only watch as Shisui made his move._

_Fugaku and Mikoto's screams seemed to echo in his ears. Their screams of betrayal, horror, fear and regret rang in his ears as Shisui's laughed triumphantly while staring at his blood-stained fingers and sword._

_Itachi watched as their bodies fell limp onto the floor and their blood seeped out and stained the wooden floor. His own arms fell still by his sides and his piercing onyx eyes turned emotionless and blank._

_Shisui smirked at him. "Don't worry Itachi… I won't kill you just like that. I'll first release the jutsu and we shall fight fair and square. May the best man win."_

_"Fair and square? What the fuck Shisui?! If you wanted fair and square you wouldn't have used such a cheap and despicable trick in order to do all this shit!! Why?! What did you gain in the end? The pleasure of fulfilling your sick and twisted dreams of your family screaming your name as you sliced up their bodies?!" Itachi boomed._

_"Hn." Shisui didn't say anything after that but only released the jutsu like he said he would._

_And so the fight began._

End of Flashback

The two Uchiha brothers sat in silence.

"Wow." Sasuke whispered.

"Hn."

"And you covered up for the bastard why again?" Sasuke continued his interrogation.

"When he was finally about to die… he apologized and he really meant it. I could tell." Itachi sighed.

"What kind of shit is that? You could tell? Then why couldn't you tell that he had some twisted scheme up his sleeve? You could tell?" Sasuke was pissed off.

"Forgive and forget." Itachi sighed. "He was a great man… he had done some great deeds before and it would be pitiful to let a man as such die off with such a horrible ending."

"It has taken me about eight or nine years to forgive him. But I finally did. Though I shall never forget it… but what is there to do? The man's is already dead Sasuke." Itachi said firmly. "As you should have learned, letting matters of the past affect what your future shall be like is not such a wise thing to do. Just forgive and let go… there's no need to hold on to all the grave and tragic events that has already happened. Nothing good shall come out of it."

"…"

"…"

"It is late now… go to sleep now and we shall continue this story some other time." Itachi instructed before walking off towards his bedroom. But before entirely leaving that room he said, "Not forget what I just told you… forgive and let go."

"Hn."

"Hn. Good night otouto."

"Aah Aniki."

Sasuke realized how wrong he was when he said before that his sensible, forgiving and peace loving brother was gone and all was left was a psychotic murderer. The same man was there… just putting up an act, tricking him and the entire village… all for the sake of a friend who had betrayed him… in the worst possible ways.

To be Continued?

I know I said I'd try to update sooner since it's summer and everything but it's not really that possible due to some overdued work I really need to finish… Really sorry!! I was able to write this chapter due to some extra time I found since I really didn't feel like doing any homework!!:P

Hope I didn't disappoint you with this chapter!!

Thanks you for reading and please review:)

P.S. I probably won't be updating till maybe early September since I still need to try and update my other fic. Sorry majorly!!:( Thanks again for reading!!:

P.S.S. Do you think I make Sasuke Itachi and Neji sorta OOC in this fic?! I dunno since I don't know exactly what it means. Tell me what you think!!:)


End file.
